THE TAOS TATLER.

Only this time it’s for real.

From Not the Bee:

The government shipped up 3 pallets of electric chainsaws to us in a community without power.

A friend writes:

Archbishop Anthony Fisher has been Archbishop of Sydney for 10 years. The archdiocese has 670,000 Catholics and 129 parishes. But he still has not been made a cardinal although Sydney traditionally is a cardinalatial See.

Bishop Mykola Bychock who will be created a cardinal, is eparch of the Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, who number just 35,000 with ten parishes. He is 44 years old, and a supporter of President Zelensky

Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles has 4.4 million Catholics and 287 parishes and is not a Cardinal.

What does the Holy Father hope to accomplish by passing over Cardinals Fisher and Gomez and making this obviously political creation of a cardinal? The Kyiv Post has a possible explanation, that expediency played a part

It came as somewhat of a surprise to Ukrainians that [Archbishop Sviatoslav] Shevchuk, 10 years older than Bychok and with a vastly broader pastoral experience, would be passed over in favor of the more obscure Bychok.

Church-watchers attribute Pope Francis’ choice to a cynical expediency, in line with his decision not to directly criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin or Kirill, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church who openly supports Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The Kyiv Post also points out that as of December, 111 of the 141 cardinals will have been created by Pope Francis. We may not expect much change in the Vatican, no matter his successor.

For further details, go here.

Even in London They Know Who is Best For America.

It seems the workers, here and abroad, disagree with our workers’ party choice of candidates, though since that party now appeals to far more Hollywood and Internet millionaires and billionaires, it isn’t that remarkable at all.

h/t GWR.

A fine tribute to a fine musician.

One of many classics: Moon River.

h/t Instapundit.

Meet Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who in 2023 while riding the F Train in Manhattan, had an encounter with Jordan Neely, one of the thousands of drug-addled, schizophrenic homeless, who had a record of 42 arrests, but was turned loose every time; who desperately needed help, but got none from the city.

Two years ago Sgt Penny was charged with the second-degree murder of Jordan Neely. The circumstances leading to the latter’s death will be all-too-familiar to most New Yorkers. The New York Sun reports:

Mr. Neely got on the F train on the Second Avenue Manhattan train station and immediately started yelling that he was “fed up”. He then took off his jacket and “aggressively whipped it to the floor”.

“I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up,” Neely screamed, according to Mr. Vazquez, adding “I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison. I’m ready to die.”

As Neely’s erratic behavior escalated, several passengers moved away, some leaving the subway car, Mr. Vazquez further reported. Video footage shows how Mr. Penny, who would tell investigators that he had moved to protect his fellow passengers, then toppled Neely to the ground and placed him in a chokehold. Neely tried in vain to break free by kicking his legs and moving his arms. Two other passengers helped restrain Neely, while Mr. Penny kept the chokehold around his neck.

Apparently Neely was asphyxiated, not surprising considering how hopped up he was on drugs. Penny was taken in for questioning by the NYPD and released soon after. The cops knew what he had been dealing with.

However, as the Sun reports:

[N]ews reports that a white man had not been charged in the death of a Black man triggered outrage across the city. Protesters demanding Mr. Penny’s arrest jumped onto train tracks and blocked incoming trains at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station, underneath downtown Manhattan, where Neely had died.

Penny was dutifully charged by the Manhattan DA. Now, at last, he will be tried in a trial likely to be long, emotionally-charged, and raucous. Unless the judge in the case is sufficiently woke, a jury trial will be demanded by the prosecution, with jurors mostly chosen by their race and the prosecutor exploiting the racism isangle at every opportunity. Sgt Penny’s chances of being acquitted are slim.

Penny, being an out-of-towner, was naïve to the ways of justice today in New York and most other large American cities. However, as judges used to say, at least they did in the movies, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” Penny’s life is in ruins thanks to his ignorance of contemporary enforcement of the law, but other out-of-towners may learn from his fate when visiting Gotham: don’t ever ride the trains. If you must, ride in the car where the conductor’s booth is. Stand, don’t sit, next to a door, and keep an eagle-eye out who gets on at every stop. If somebody boarding alarms you, for whatever reason, get out. Don’t get involved, don’t be a good citizen, don’t protect others from a crackpot. Let them fend for themselves. If you feel any shame for bolting, remind yourself what happened, and will happen, to Sgt Daniel Penny owing to an accident of birth on his part and the colossal failure of the city’s vast social services apparatus to rescue tragically ill people like Jordan Neely.

Imagine being held hostage in a foreign land and returning home to America after release only to find the Internal Revenue Service has billed you for thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, along with late fees, interest, and penalties.

That was the startling reality encountered recently by former hostages Evan Gerhskovich, Paul Whelan, and Vladimir Kara-Murza, who were released from detention in Russia in August, Reason reports. The men reported facing a slew of financial issues upon their return, including tax charges and credit hits resulting from bills they were unable to pay while imprisoned.

We’re long past the point this institutional band of thieves were closed down, every one of its officers fired and the unionized employees, who would be difficult to fire, re-assigned to the most menial and degrading positions that can be found for them. Cleaning public toilets would be a good start. 

Mr Trump?

To my few but greatly appreciated readers: just a few minutes ago, I discovered, to my horror, that some of you left comments (some going back two years!) that were never read, hence never approved, and hence never posted. All of the comments should not only have been approved (I am hardly in the position of having to shift through thousands upon thousands of them) but also approved promptly. This has finally been done, but it hardly absolves your Tatler of his grievous fault. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. This will not happen again.

Your repentant Bickerstaff

Satire has essentially been banned in the Golden State if it’s not to the liking, i.e., to the right, of Governor Nuisance’s views, and which he deems “election interference.” About time someone took him on. Bravo Bee!

. . . the supply of the world’s purest quartz, essential to the world economy, in tiny Spruce Pine, North Carolina, is completely cut off because of the recent hurricane. More than two feet of rain fell there.

But not to worry, Americans, the Bidens just sent $2.4 billion more of our money to Ukraine.

Update. There’s also this: Biden Can Check Out Any Time He Likes (and He’s Basically Left)